It’s been a year in the making, but on Sunday we left the two kids at home with Grandma and Grandpa Monroe then set off for Iceland. We left Madison around 730 PM CDT in the evening, connected through Minneapolis, and finally made it to Keflavik at 915 AM GMT Monday morning. Amber probably got about three hours of sleep, but I’d guess I was under one. There’s just no way to get comfortable on a plane without much room to stretch out. Thankfully both flights were otherwise uneventful and we arrived virtually on time. After collecting our luggage, we cleared customs quickly but had to wait a bit for the shuttle driver to pick up our rental car.
Waiting for our first flight at MSN.
At the rental company, we filled out paperwork, told them we didn’t need sandstorm insurance (hopefully that wasn’t a mistake), and took a few pics of the car just in case. Next we were headed off to the Blue Lagoon. Good news: my offline Google maps worked perfectly and got us there in the estimated timeframe.
The Blue Lagoon is sort of like a hot tub on steroids. The runoff from a nearby power plant flooded a portion of a lava plain with warm water, making an ideal location for tourists like us to relax. We started with a fancy lunch with sparkling wine, then headed outside to have a soak. Our package included a free round of drinks and mud masks which made us look like monsters. After about an hour in the water, our fingers and toes where pruny and it was time to go. But not before finding our first physical Icelandic geocache.
Lounging in the Blue Lagoon.
Another example of really blue water in the Illarhaun lava field outside the Lagoon.
Getting a photo for an EarthCache. There was one for the Blue Lagoon, as well as the surrounding lava field.
The drive back to Reykjavik was beautiful and easy. We checked into our hotel, did a little recon on dinner options, then decided to ignore our research and just explore. We ended up eating at a tapas bar named Public House Gastropub instead. They serve small, shareable portions, so we picked five from the menu and ordered adult beverages. Amber’s favorite was the “duck chopsticks”, while I preferred the Japanese Fried Chicken. We weren’t exactly stuffed afterward, so we wanted to find some ice cream for dessert. Not knowing where to find any and without an easy phone internet connection we opted to stop in a grocery store and pick up some Ben & Jerry’s to take back to our hotel.
We finished the evening with NCIS on TV while we ate ice cream in bed. Amber fell asleep around 8pm, while I almost made it to 9:30 when grandpa let us know the girls were home and ready to do FaceTime. It was good to see them, but also good to crash afterward.